Everyone agrees that Molly Malone is one of the more famous people in the history of Dublin. Whether she’s a person who ever really existed is another question.

She’s certainly one of the strangest icons ever commemorated officially by a city government. The statue of her on lower Grafton Street, erected in 1987, depicts a woman in a 17th century dress that shows so much cleavage Madonna might be unwilling to wear it. The old song about her, “Cockles and Mussels," is a sort of unofficial anthem of Dublin, sung regularly by fans at soccer and hurling matches.